By Emmanuel Nyatsikor, GNA
Adaklu Waya (V/R), April 18, GNA – Mr Dogah Tsigbe, the Coordinator of Network of Practice (NoP) of the Adaklu District Health Directorate Friday reminded Community Health Management Committee (CHMC) members that they were the liaison between the health facilities and their communities.
He therefore advised them to encourage their community members to use the health facilities in their communities as the first point of call when seeking healthcare and mobilize them to support the facilities.
Mr Tsigbe gave the reminder when he presented a paper on “Operationalization of NoP activities in the Adaklu district” at a one-day capacity building training for the CHMC members drawn from five communities in the district at Adaklu Waya.
It was organised by the I Am Aware (IAA) Programme of the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana) in collaboration with Agency for Sustainable Development, its Implementing Partner in the Adaklu district.
The aim of the training was to strengthen the capacity of participants’ understanding of the Community-based Health Planning Services (CHPS) concept and the NoP.
It was also to equip them on the use of score cards as an accountability tool to support the governance, improvement in quality of health and healthcare services in the district and how to develop their community action plans.
Mr Tsigbe said the NoP was a collaborative, hub-and-spoke model in the health sector that connected primary care facilities to a central “model health centre “hub” to improve service quality, efficiency and referral system.
He stressed that the system promoted shared resources and accountability to achieve universal health coverage and reduced congestion at higher level hospitals.
The Coordinator said it would also increase access to quality essential healthcare and population-based services for all by 2030.
He said the NoP would also reduce avoidable maternal, adolescent and child deaths and disabilities and increase access to responsive clinical and public health emergency services.
Mr Tsigbe stated that there were five Networks, and named them as Ahunda, Waya, Wumenu, Sofa/Ablornu and Helekpe.
He said the District Health Directorate supported the Networks in the procurement of logistics, resource mobilisation and supervision.
He intimated that the Networks also received technical support from the National Health Insurance Authority which he said led to the I crease in monthly NHIS claims, reduction in NHIS claims rejection, increasing NHIS claims enrollment and increase in attendance.
The Coordinator noted that referrals have also seen an attributed to the capacity building of health workers, the CHMC and community members.
He stated that the district has seen significant improvement in logistics management, which he said was due to the empowerment of the Networks to share logistics among themselves.
Mr Cheetham Mingle, a Research Assistant of CDD-Ghana, asked the participants to put to good use what they learnt at the training to enable them implement their community action plans, organize quarterly meetings and also develop community scorecards to enable them monitor the quality of services of their CHPS facilities.
The IAA Programme is a non-partisan citizens’ empowerment campaign by CDD-Ghana that provides free user-friendly data on public service delivery in education, health, sanitation, water, security, roads and agriculture.
Its goal is to increase citizens’ awareness and engagement with duty-bearers to enhance accountability.
GNA
Edited by Maxwell Awumah/Benjamin Mensah